August 1, 1898.] 
THE TiiOPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
97 
TEA (CEYLON QUALITY IMPKOVED 
OF KECENT YEAKS). 
FURTHER EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF DIRECT 
DEALINGS. 
(£y a retired Eangalla Planter.) 
I never take up a Ceylon paper, now-a-days 
without reading several para{;raphs from brokers 
in the Lane, and other agents for the sale of 
tea, comi)laining about the inferior quality of 
your staple as compared with former years. Then 
advice is given to the planters, by all and sundry, 
to pluck finer, cure better and ship more care- 
fully ; but still, although all this advice has been 
taken in some cases, the results, so far as the 
price is concerned, do not improve, in fact 
everything connected with tea goes down except the 
commissions paid to agents and brokers, — they 
keep up all ris-ht. ft is not for me, a non- 
specialist on the subject of tea, to suggest any 
alteration in the present line of mercantile pro- 
cedure ; but just, as a happy thought, I would 
advise that a rule be brought into operation 
that no commission is, in future, to be paid to 
brokers on sales effected under ninepence a lb. 
I have as good opportunities of tasting Ceylon 
teas of various brands as most ordinary residents 
in the British Isles, and, I must confess tliat, 
so far from the quality having depreciated, it has 
improved, in every case, during the past few 
years, and it would be a very strange thing if 
all the high grade teas were sent to this remote 
corner of Scotland, and all the badly cured, 
coarsely picked and inferior quality brands were 
reserved for London drinkers. I always pay Is 4d 
a lb. for my tea, and I prefer it to tlie 2s 6d 
Assam tea which I occasionally meet witii, and 
compared with China tea — well I can't compare 
the two, because 1 never drink China tea. 
Ceylon planters need not fret, therefore, over 
the ghastly tales of the London broker; these are 
all told for the purpose of excusing themselves 
for getting sucii bad prices ; wliat the planters are 
requiring to do is to try and get their work 
done witliout the assistance of a middleman at 
all, as one can alway* get a better price by a 
direct sale tlian througii a broker. I write tliis 
feelingly as I find that I can always get a better 
price for my wool by selling direct to the mill 
than through a broker, and a better price for 
cattle and sheep sold at home tlian by sending 
them to an auction mart. In a late Observer 
there appeared a paragraph about "atrocious 
tea" and an illustration was given of a stem, 
about as large as the pen-holder with which I am 
writing. No doubt that sample was bad enough 
to justify the brokers' outcry, and, if it went 
forward, must have been productive of an out- 
burst of advice from the distinguislied member 
of the Lane into whose hands it had been placed 
for sale. It reminded me,— and no doubt your 
erst-while corresjiondent, " Aberdonensis," would 
be reminded also,— o£ the celebrated post and rail 
brand of China tea which was so commonly in 
use, at one time, in the back blocks of Australia, 
the larger stems of which, alter being infused as 
tea, were kept in reserve, as Christmas logs, in 
districts >vhei'e Uvcwood was scarce ! 
13 
CHINA TEAS-" NEW METHOD." 
We are indebted to the planting proprietor who 
sends us a cojiy of a London circular of 9th June on 
China teas, and writes:— "You may not have 
seen the enclosed which evidently refers to the 
new (modern) methods of making" Tea being in- 
troduced into Chinx. Even with the very favour- 
able exchange, I should think, these prices would 
hardly pay." We quote as follows : — 
New-make Congous.— The lirst New season's eX 
"Victoria," were offered on the 25th April, viz., 618 
boxes medium to good medium Macao leaf, which sold 
from 6Jd to 9d per lb.— the succeediog import of 703 
boxes ranging from about 5d to 8d— subsequent small 
imports, includiug New Method manufacture, ex- 
periencing a less ready sale the last fortnight or 
three weeks, especially New Style— the closing range 
for New Macao leaf, fair common, being 4Jd fair to 
good medium 5d to 7d, and 95 mats, each four u lb. 
boxes, 7d per lb. 
"New Method" Teas.— Aitotiou sales show follow- 
ing results: — 
54 hf-ch Pekoe Congou 
Pekoe Souchong 
55 
83 
16 
11 
16 
34 
16 
38 
21 
94 
121 
10 
at 
Broken leaf Pekoe Congou ,, 
,, Pekoe ... 
n ,t • ■ ,, 
Orange Pekoe .. ,, 
Golden ,, ,, 
Specially prepared Broken 
Orange Pekoe „ 
Specially prepared New 
Season's Panyong ,, 
Choicest hand-made Saryune ,, 
Keemun Broken Pekoe ,, 
Sittings 
Per lb. 
5i 
4| 
4^d and 5d 
3Jct and £id 
Sidand 6d 
6id and 6Jd 
5|d 
6d 
5d 
6d 
4id 
2id 
577 half- chests, which sold at easy rates considering 
the scarcity of medium to good medium Congous. 
TEA PLANTING IN ASSAM. 
(BY SIROCCO). 
I hare been a long time " in Tea " and have had 
little dreams about writing a book on " Tea. I 
know the orthodox beginning of a book. You 
get hold of the Tea Cyclopocdia and you start 
from the beginning of tea, and copy out how 
Major So-and-So lirst discovered tea'in Assam, 
(tc, &c. I have a way, when I get a new book 
to read, of opening it somewhere about the 
middle, and going on as long as interest lasts, 
and if this lands me at the end, I begin that 
book and read up to the starting place^andsol 
will begin my book on " Tea " about the middle, 
and see if I can keep up the interest. The readers 
of the Pioneer are those who have investe<l, mean 
to invest, may possibly in vest, or take no interest 
whatever in tea not even in the drinkino' of 
it. I should like to take the seriatim. " 
If you have invested in tea the great question 
is will it continue to pay ? The answer is 
simple. Tea will continue to pay large percentages 
until it comes down to a steady and certain 
5 per cent. At present the range of dividends 
is from 50 per cent to nil ; in a few years the 
range will be from 20 to 2 : later on it will be 10 
to 5 and there it will stay. There will be no 
concerns which don't pay at all, and there will be 
none which pay fabulous jirofits. It is hardly 
necessary to trace the cause of this "steadying,"" 
because it is simply the human desire to par- 
ticipate in good things and the demand for shares 
precludes any i)rivate monopolies. More than 20 
years ayo I heard a, man «ay that t?a would not 
